RISHI’S NEW TAX ATTACK
Chancellor targets web giants’ cash
RISHI Sunak will unleash 30 more tax changes when he delivers the second half of his Budget in two weeks.
They will include proposals for an ‘Amazon tax’ on online companies that have enjoyed huge profits during lockdown.
However, he also plans to slash public spending despite the country being left battered by Covid-19, Labour warned.
This year, for the first time, the Chancellor has cut the Budget in two with long-term tax consultations being unveiled on March 23.
Mr Sunak has been talking to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and G7 finance ministers about how to tax digital giants.
The Chancellor said: “One of my priorities is to get international agreement on a new way to tax these companies.”
Until now, Mr Sunak’s hands have been tied because multi-national taxation is governed by treaties drawn up between the 37 member countries of world trade group, OECD.
But many of those treaties were thrashed out 60 years ago – long before the digital age.
Meanwhile, Labour analysis shows that Mr Sunak will cut £64.5billion from public spending over the next five years.
Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds said: “The Chancellor is desperate to take us back
I want to get an international agreement to tax
online firms
to the same failed policies that weakened our economy before Covid. It’s astonishing he thinks our schools and hospitals have no role to play in our recovery.”
Paul Johnson of the Institute For Fiscal Studies said Mr Sunak will find himself forced to spend more on the NHS, education, courts, transport and social care, and added that his spending plans “look implausibly low”.
The Treasury is anxious to avoid another lockdown which would weaken the economy further. A source said: “There’s lots of different costs – lives lost, kids’ schooling and people’s jobs. We have to make the right decisions on the balance of all those things.”
Mr Sunak has not ruled out more import checks on EU goods following Brexit, which could hit the UK’S ability to trade.
But he added: “The systems and IT are on track but we’re keeping everything under review to make sure it is as smooth as possible.”
DANNII Minogue is more mop star than pop star these days – as she gets her kicks from housework.
The former X Factor judge even scrubbed her neighbours’ windows when she lived in London before moving back to Oz.
She said: “The only rush you get is cleaning the house. I hate doing bathrooms but
I love vacuuming, I love doing dishes, putting things away. Windows, no problem.
“I shared a balcony with one of my neighbours and, for me, the windows were never cleaned as much as I would like.
“I would clean the windows and said to my neighbours, ‘I’m out with the bucket, do you want me to clean yours as well?’
“My neighbour’s got photos of me on the balcony, on the ninth floor in Battersea. She thought it was hilarious.” The singer – who found fame in Aussie soap Home And Away while sis Kylie starred in Neighbours – also told how she can’t wait to turn 50 in October.
Dannii, who now lives in Melbourne and has a 10-year-old son, Ethan, said: “I’m always ageing myself up – I might be 49 but in my head I’m already turning 50. I could never wait for the next birthday.”